Lawmakers in Michigan are considering passage of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a bill that would legally protect people from practicing “sincerely held religious beliefs,” according to the Detroit Free Press.

As part of a custody dispute, a woman in Utah is fighting a court order that prohibits her from talking to her children about her fundamentalist Mormon beliefs, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
The woman, who was raised Mormon, has been attending the...

A Washington Post blog post points out that in this digital age, when people can come across all manner of stories on the Internet, leaders of well-established religions are being forced to acknowledge certain historical truths and as a result are...

In Burbank, there are UFOs and then there are UFOs.
The first kind exists in sound stages and on computer screens before it hits silver screens. The second kind was created in the last century at Lockheed's former top-secret research facility in Burbank...

A young Italian nun with a powerful singing voice and engaging stage presence has been capturing the attention of millions of television viewers on "The Voice of Italy." Her performance of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" knocked another female contestant...

James and Wendy Etter have announced the engagement of their daughter, Darlene Ann Etter, to Timothy Joseph Gardner, son of Gregory and Kelly Gardner of Palmdale. The wedding is planned for April and the couple will honeymoon on Catalina Island.
The bride-to-be is a graduate of Burroughs High School and Los Angeles Valley College, majoring in child development. She is working as an entertainment payroll scanner for TEAM.
Her fiancé graduated from Paraclete High School in Lancaster and Antelope Valley...

The second time around, the grooms wore matching sleek, black suits.
In a star-studded Beverly Hills party Saturday, Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo, two of the plaintiffs in the landmark case that struck down Proposition 8’s ban on same-sex marriage in California, were able to celebrate their marriage with all the trappings of a well-planned wedding day. The ceremony came exactly one year after their actual marriage.
Katami and Zarrillo were the first couple to be married in Los Angeles, just...

WASHINGTON — Four years ago, many gay rights advocates shook their heads when super-lawyers Theodore B. Olson and David Boies announced they would challenge California's ban on gay marriages in federal court and take the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
It was too risky, the skeptics said. Voters in state after state were rejecting same-sex marriage, and no federal judge had said such bans were illegal. One liberal legal scholar called the lawsuit a "Hail Mary" pass.
But now that...

Saturday's nostalgia-fueled romp across the decades proved you may get older, but some people — and hairstyles — never change.
A reunion of hundreds overtook the grand ballroom of Castaway restaurant Saturday night, bringing together the collective graduating classes of Burroughs and Burbank high schools from the 1950s on.
While acoustic versions of hits like "Johnny B. Goode" and "Play that Funky Music" pounded out onto the dance floor, a couple who met in third grade more than 30 years...

Gay and lesbian couples are rightfully celebrating this week's twin decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court that effectively affirmed the rights of gay couples to marry in California and provided married, same-sex couples federal benefits previously denied them.
Burbank couple Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo were two of the four California plaintiffs to bring the issue of same-sex marriage to the top court in the land. Their victory this week has left them understandably jubilant. Cheering alongside them...

The Supreme Court's decisions to strike down the Defense Of Marriage Act and reject a lawsuit aimed at upholding California's Proposition 8 have caused jubilation among gay-rights supporters and anger among opponents of gay marriage.
Conservative Christians have denounced the decision, with Bryan J. Fischer of the American Family Assn. tweeting, "The DOMA ruling has now made the normalization of polygamy, pedophilia, incest and bestiality inevitable." Gay-marriage advocates are now preparing to launch a...

Opponents of same-sex marriage asked the California Supreme Court on Friday to order county clerks to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples, arguing that Gov. Jerry Brown lacked the authority to end enforcement of Proposition 8.
ProtectMarriage, the group that sponsored the 2008 ballot measure banning gay marriage, urged the state high court to act under a California constitutional provision that prohibits officials from refusing to enforce a law unless an appellate court has first determined the...